The Duterte administration awarded to Megawide-GMR Consortium the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the Clark International Airport new terminal building, the government’s first hybrid infrastructure project under the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program.
Megawide-GMR, a joint venture of Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructure of India, was declared the bidder with the “lowest calculated responsive bid,” after passing the post-qualification evaluation phase of the competitive bidding”•beating the offers of four other bidders.
The ‘post-qualification’ process, done in accordance with Philippine government procurement rules, involved validating and verifying the authenticity and veracity of statements made and documents submitted by lowest bidder.
Megawide-GMR submitted the lowest financial proposal for the airport expansion project at P9.36 billion on Dec. 14.
The other four groups which joined the bidding after passing the evaluation of technical proposals were China State Construction Engineering Corp. Ltd., China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd., Sinohydro Corporation Ltd. and the consortium of Tokwing Construction Corp. and China Machinery Engineering Corp.
The new terminal building will break ground on Dec. 20, 2017 at Clark Civil Aviation Complex in Pampanga. The new terminal will accommodate an additional eight million passengers per annum.
The Clark International Airport new terminal building is the first of the Duterte administration’s hybrid infrastructure projects under the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program. The hybrid model means that the government will build the infrastructure using its own funds and then the operations and maintenance will be bid out to the private sector.
The hybrid project is considered the fastest to be implemented by the government since it was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority board in June 2017. The project will break ground in only six months after it was approved by the board headed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Clark International Airport is envisioned to be Asia’s next premier gateway and is expected to help decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Clark airport currently has an annual capacity of four million passengers. Airlines operating in Clark include Qatar Airways, Cebu Pacific, Tigerair, Jin Air, Asiana Airlines, Dragon Air, AirAsia Berhad, Philippine Airlines and Emirates Airlines.
These airlines mount flights to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Macau, Pudong, Incheon, Doha, Dubai, Davao, Cebu and Kalibo.
Megawide-GMR earlier won a 25-year concession agreement in December 2013 that involved the renovation of the Terminal 1 of Mactan Cebu airport as well as the design, financing, construction and operation of a second terminal. It submitted the highest bid of P14.4 billion.